Dec 16, 2013 3 min read

This week, I lost my phone. I know I had it Tuesday night, because my sister called me while I was at my dad’s. I am pretty sure that I had it in my car when I left my dad’s, because I stuck it in a bag with some things he sent home with me. I can’t say for sure if I saw it again, although, the things my dad gave to me all made it into the house.

And because of the lengths I went to in an effort to find it, now I am forced to admit that I am one of those people who are uncomfortable without a cellphone.

I made it for a day with no problem. I took my husband’s phone with me on my errands in case of an emergency. But once people started calling the house asking why I hadn’t called or texted them back, I began to feel some anxiety. I wondered how many calls I missed and how many texts. One call to the house was work-related, and that caused a near panic.

I asked the kids to help me look for it. We began in all the places I have been known to mistakenly lay down my belongings. We searched my purse, my coat, my light jacket, my sweater. Yeah, I get pretty cold sometimes.

We looked in the drawers in the kitchen and my bedroom. We looked on my desk. We looked in the pants I was wearing Tuesday. And then in all of the pants in the hamper. No phone.

Visions of having dropped my phone in the yard on the way from the car brought on visions of one of my dogs thinking it a chew toy. Having found aluminum foil, part of a paper plate and half a Christmas card in the yard last weekend as the only remnants of a gift from a neighbor reminded me that it was entirely possible. Desperate now, I offered a five-dollar reward for return of my phone, dead or alive.

We opened doors in cupboards I haven’t been in since we put the furniture there, including the spot where the kids must shove things that they don’t want to walk to the trash can. An empty cereal box, a hot pad holder and a partial roll of toilet paper were all shoved behind one door. But still no phone.

After the promise of money couldn’t make my children produce my phone, I gave up. I accepted it as lost. I then made a plea to friends that I would pay for a gently used phone if they had one compatible to my carrier. I had two friends offer one, (thank you ladies!) and I picked one up Friday.

Number transferred, contacts backed up, crisis averted. Now, to clean out those little-used cupboards. I wonder if the kids would do it for me? I’ve still got five dollars that says probably not.

Laura Zoeller can be reached at zoeller5@hughes.net.